I just got a call from a QuickBooks salesperson, and received a quote for an upgrade, from my QuickBooks Premiere 2006 5-user Edition, to QuickBooks Premiere 2008 for 5-users.

Cost of the upgrade: a bit over $2000 ($1195 for the 3-user edition of QuickBooks Premiere 2008, plus $445 each for two of 1-user editions). I realize I could get a bit of a discount, but the price will still hover in the $2000 range.

In other words, Intuit is charging me $2000 to upgrade a 2-year old software that cost $1195 originally.

Please also keep in mind that the 2006 version, to this date, is not Vista compatible, and is not certified for Windows XP Pro, as it uses the system registry to keep track of database updates, a practice strongly discouraged by Microsoft and experts as insecure and detrimental to system and software performance.

This, certainly, motivates me to seek alternatives to QuickBooks, both "hosted" (software as a service) and locally installed.

For decent inventory tracking, integrated payroll, estimates (quotes), purchase orders, ability to customize invoices and other forms, and email them to customers, and up to 5 users, what solutions would you recommend, besides QuickBooks? I'd prefer to keep the cost below $1000 a year.

I am a Quickbooks Consultant. Do not want to discuss costs. Love to use QB.Nobody says you have to UP GRADE. The job of a Salesperson is to sell.Are you happy with the version you have now. Each year the newer version gets more complexIn other words, if you bought a new car last year and the salesperson called and told you about the NEW this years model, it is tempting, BUTLUCKIEST

How does that work for upgrade notices when you open your Quickbooks? Do I click "install now" or never click "install now"? I'm always getting notices telling me there's a new version (or upgrade); am I supposed to ignore it and stay with the original copy that was originally installed, or should I be installing those new upgrades?

Unfortunately, anyone who has been using Q-Books for any length of time is pretty much stuck, unless you want to go thru the rigors of changing to another program in which case you better bring your IT guy, accountant, bookeeper in for the weekend changover. Our company has been using QBooks since version 2.5 back in 94?? and have upgraded over the years. Our computer guy has stayed with an older version since he has no need for payroll and QB's payroll table support and updates. I've seen what was once a great program turn into an absolute slog of a program. Now considering computers are so much faster since 1994, I find it attrocious that Quickbooks is actually slower than that 1994 program version. The've added email and updates and all kinds of esimating (actually pretty good) and some other nonessential junk to slow this program to a crawl even with our Cray Super Computer. Our accountant has been an advisor for 10 plus years and even she admits they are not interested in listening to what people want. Quickbooks basically have become sales whores in the accounting world. If they were smart vs. greedy, they'd pare off the program to offload some of junk that holds back it's potential.Bottom line is stay with a version that works for your company as long as possible. Preplan to update ~2 months before the support ends. See what new versions are working for others BEFORE you upgrade. Let someone else be the guinnea pig. Double check to see if you need the premier addition. We are presently using QB 2007 I think the standard version, not premier. Best of luck.

Thanks Humble Pie, that was a helpful answer. While I think that QuickBooks became a seriously overweight behemoth of a software not only because of the extra non-essential features, but also because of poor, irresponsible programming techniques (their data sharing implementation across multiple users goes against most accepted principles, and recommendations), the bottom line is that Intuit stopped caring about its customers, and abuses its hold on the market.

I am considering the alternatives, among them MS Accounting Pro, and NetSuite, and if we switch, we'll probably keep both books for 6 months or so, until we are sure that all business processes have been duplicated. The 1st step would be to try BofA online payroll solution (really, ADP), and see how easy it is to implement within QuickBooks. From there, switching will be easier.

Alexeig, you are absolutely correct, just becasue they got a large part of the market wrapped up, it certainly goes against any good business model of putting the customers first and LISTENING to what customers want versus jamming new versions that have no new benefit to their customers.

amspcs - thanks for the reply. That is a nice discount - about 20% I believe, but it still means that a 5-user installation will cost a shade under $1800, which is far more than what I paid for the original QuickBooks Premiere 2006, 5-user edition.

I did say that it was an Intuit sales rep who quoted me the numbers. Feel free to call Intuit to verify.

I was a bit off: a 3-user version of QB Premier 2008 is $959.96, 2 more users are $359.96 each, so 5 users come out to $1679.88. Still quite a bit more than a 5-user version of QuickBooks Premier 2006 for $1195, neh? :)

I am not sure about the incompatibilities that you mentioned. I was the treasurer of an $800K per year non-profit using Windows XP Professional. We used QuickBooks Pro 2003. As of last summer we were still getting free updates from Intuit and the software worked well. We had a CPA on the Board who I asked to check into upgrading to 2007. He investigated and said there was no reason to waste the money.

Incompatability of QB I think refers to the credit card processing capability of the software. Currently, you can't process CC if you have version 03 or older I think...it may be earlier. That's not to say they won't support it, although that's true as well. It means the CC processing won't work at all.

Well I did say that QB 2006 and prior versions were not Vista compatible, and not certified for Windows XP Pro, but I never said it couldn't work for Windows XP. For the majority users, it works, as it still works for me, even as it poses a huge security risk for its users.

However for many network and domain environment users, nearly all versions of QuickBooks prior to 2007, are incompatible. The reason is, these versions of QuickBooks require local administrative privileges both to install and to run on a networked computer - a huge security risk, a practice strongly discouraged by Microsoft and independent experts, as it opens full access to the computer, to potential hackers, virus and malware infections. Which is why these versions of QuickBooks are incompatible with Vista, and never got a "compatible with Windows XP" certification from Microsoft.

Think about it, Intuit released at least 4 versions of QuickBooks during the Windows XP era (2003 through 2006, at least), and none of them were certified by Microsoft as compatible. :) And now that 5 years later, they released a certified compatible one, they are asking twice the money. Of course! It makes great business sense! :)

Granted, the vast majority of QuickBooks users are small businesses who don't follow security guidelines until there someone makes them. Enter Windows Vista: administrative access is strongly discouraged, and unlike XP, there is now a way to temporarily invoke administrative access without logging off - sweet! Unix had it since 1972, and Microsoft finally heard the call!

So it's not that QuickBooks wouldn't work on XP - it would, for most small businesses, even if exposing its users to significant security risks.

The real question is, what is the cost effective alternative to QuickBooks, that is also faster, more secure, with better support and upgrade policies? And no, there is no simple answer to that question, and probably won't be for a while. For some people, some alternatives may work - but on a majority of us, QuickBooks has a choke hold.

"...Microsoft gets bashed if they even dare consider dropping support for a 6 year old operating system but it's somehow ok if Intuit decides to cut off backward compatibility for QuickBooks 2006 which is a little more than one year old."

"As it turns out, it isn't QuickBooks 2006 itself that has the problem with Vista but all the Intuit and third party add-on software that communicates with QuickBooks 2006 that's the problem. More to the point, it's the intercommunication between all those applications and the fact that they're using forbidden techniques that have been banned since 2001 with Windows XP certification requirements that's the issue. Intuit admitted to me that they declined to seek Windows XP certification for all these years and they're just now making the necessary modifications for QuickBooks 2007. The reason this is relevant is because most software that is certified for Windows XP will automatically be compatible with Windows Vista."

"The forbidden techniques in question is the fact that Intuit uses the Windows registry as a communication medium to talk to Intuit or third party add-on software and the portion of the registry being used requires full administrative privileges to write to. Windows XP certification has banned these practices since 2001 but Intuit never sought XP certification."

I just got a call from a QuickBooks salesperson, and received a quote for an upgrade, from my QuickBooks Premiere 2006 5-user Edition, to QuickBooks Premiere 2008 for 5-users.

Cost of the upgrade: a bit over $2000 ($1195 for the 3-user edition of QuickBooks Premiere 2008, plus $445 each for two of 1-user editions). I realize I could get a bit of a discount, but the price will still hover in the $2000 range.

In other words, Intuit is charging me $2000 to upgrade a 2-year old software that cost $1195 originally.

Please also keep in mind that the 2006 version, to this date, is not Vista compatible, and is not certified for Windows XP Pro, as it uses the system registry to keep track of database updates, a practice strongly discouraged by Microsoft and experts as insecure and detrimental to system and software performance.

This, certainly, motivates me to seek alternatives to QuickBooks, both "hosted" (software as a service) and locally installed.

For decent inventory tracking, integrated payroll, estimates (quotes), purchase orders, ability to customize invoices and other forms, and email them to customers, and up to 5 users, what solutions would you recommend, besides QuickBooks? I'd prefer to keep the cost below $1000 a year.

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